Flights

Continental Airlines will end its Orange County-Maui service Dec. 31. Started in March 2010, the regular weekend flights will be canceled, according to airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge. Continental will provide daily Maui service from Dec. 19 to 31, to take advantage of the holiday travel rush. The airline's Orange County-Honolulu service remains unaffected. "It's unfortunate this is ending, as we know there are lots of Orange County residents who travel to and from this area," Wedge said about Maui.

AirTran Airways began daily flights from John Wayne Airport to Mexico over the weekend, offering a message of "Bienvenidos, Orange County" at its launch party. More than 200 passengers boarded planes for the Cabo San Lucas area and Mexico City on Sunday morning. Two fully booked planes, each with a seating capacity of 137 passengers, left the airport's newly built Terminal C amid fanfare that included a complimentary Mexican-style breakfast, sunglasses and other gifts from the airline.

Beginning Monday, United Airlines will be end flights between Orange County's John Wayne Airport and Honolulu, Hawaii, due to a decrease in demand. Some pre-booked flights in June between the two destinations will be the exception. United Airlines spokesman Mike Trevino said that this particular route began in March 2010, just before the onset of a merger in October of that year between United Airlines and Continental Airlines. The merger operated as United Continental Corp. until last month, when the Federal Aviation Administration awarded United Airlines with a single operating certificate.

Residents from Newport Beach’s Bluffs neighborhood complain that a corrected satellite-guided takeoff procedure for jets from John Wayne Airport doesn’t shift noisy air traffic from over their heads as the Federal Aviation Administration said it would. In theory, the new procedure, called DUUKE TWO, is designed to shift outbound air traffic an eighth of a mile north toward the center of Upper Newport Bay. Bluffs residents say they still hear constant noise from jets that interrupts their phone conversations and drowns out their favorite TV programs.

At least 12 flights between John Wayne Airport and San Francisco were canceled Saturday after a jetliner crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport earlier in the day, according to JWA's website. Seven departures from and five arrivals to JWA, mainly Southwest and United airlines flights, were canceled as of 8 p.m. Saturday, the JWA website said. Two people died and at 49 people were in serious condition after an Asiana Airlines flight carrying 307 passengers from Seoul, South Korea, crashed at 11:27 a.m. Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

For a second straight day, some of John Wayne Airport's scheduled arrivals from and departures to Chicago-area airports and other Midwestern hubs were canceled. By about 11 a.m. Wednesday, two United Airlines departures to O'Hare International Airport and one departure to Baltimore were canceled due to the storms hitting the Midwest and Northeast . Additionally, nine arrivals were canceled from various airports. In Chicago, 20.2 inches of snow had fallen through midday Wednesday, prompting airlines based at O'Hare to cancel all their flights until Thursday.

Marisa O'Neil Air travel returned to normal Wednesday after a communication outage grounded flights throughout Southern California on Tuesday evening, canceling 64 flights here in Orange County. It caused later flights to leave after the airport's curfew. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why radio communication failed at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale for nearly five hours on Tuesday. The outage started just before 5 p.m. and kept hundreds of flights grounded at seven airports until about 8:30 p.m. when communications started coming back on line.

Deepa Bharath The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved one-year leases for Aloha Airlines -- a decision that will ease the tension of more than 6,000 passengers who have already booked tickets on Aloha's direct flights from John Wayne Airport beginning May 1. "We're delighted," said Glenn Zander, President and CEO of Aloha Airlines. "And we're glad that it's 5-0." The issue was on shaky ground a few weeks ago when Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson, whose 5th District includes Newport Beach and other South County cities fighting an El Toro airport, said they would oppose the leases if the county pursued shifting the airport's two cargo flights to an airport at the former El Toro Marine base.

Orange County is offering more than $1 million in incentives to airlines willing to make direct flights to Hawaii, Mexico and Washington, D.C., out of John Wayne Airport. The last flight to Hawaii out of Orange County was in 2010, the year Continental Airlines pulled out of the market. John Wayne has never had direct service to the nation's capital. Orange County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a package of $1.3 million in incentives and rent discounts to entice airlines.

A small crowd gathered at the Back Bay View Park on Tuesday, watching as the first flights departed John Wayne Airport and flew correctly overhead. But a few people on hand insisted the situation was an anomaly, perhaps because the pilots knew they were being watched. "I'm personally offended," said Kay Rackauckas, who lives in Jasmine Creek and has complained that for several weeks, flights were veering over Corona del Mar before turning around over the ocean. "All this proves is they can fly straight.

A man who went into full cardiac arrest died aboard a flight from Dallas to John Wayne Airport late Tuesday morning, authorities said, despite the attempts of fellow passengers and crew members to revive him. John Selner, 78, of Fort Worth, Texas, was pronounced dead at 11:45 a.m., shortly after the flight had landed, according to the Orange County Coroner's Office. He was traveling with his wife and son, according to Cpt. Steve Concialdi, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

Traffic through John Wayne Airport declined in November 2013 in nearly all categories compared with November 2012, according to a monthly report. The airport's total number of passengers decreased by 1.6%, from 750,800 in November 2012 to 739,031 last month, while total commercial operations declined by 4.5%, from 6,654 to 6,357, the report said. Those figures include international traffic through JWA, which also fell last month, compared with the same period last year. In November 2012, which was one of the first months to see JWA's full range of flights to Mexico up and running, 30,125 total international passengers passed through the airport.

Orange County is offering more than $1 million in incentives to airlines willing to make direct flights to Hawaii, Mexico and Washington, D.C., out of John Wayne Airport. The last flight to Hawaii out of Orange County was in 2010, the year Continental Airlines pulled out of the market. John Wayne has never had direct service to the nation's capital. Orange County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a package of $1.3 million in incentives and rent discounts to entice airlines.

A study whose results were announced this week found that John Wayne Airport's service to Mexico injected about $131 million into the local economy, including revenue from the added airport operations and visitor spending. "This study shows the significant value air service from Mexico brings to the region's economy," Airport Director Alan Murphy said in a statement. "With our partners AirTran and Interjet, we look forward to continuing to provide a convenient gateway for business and leisure travelers to reach the heart of Southern California.

Slightly more passengers flew into and out of John Wayne Airport this July than last, according to numbers released Tuesday. The airport served 834,328 people in July 2013, a 2.2% increase over the previous July, when 816,536 people were served. Still, fewer aircraft takeoffs and landings were reported last month. More than 21,800 aircraft operations occurred this July, a 1% decrease over the same month in 2012. Some of this decrease can be attributed to a decline in the number of commuter flights, which are commercial flights involving aircraft that seat no more than 70 people, and a decline in the number of private aircraft flights.

At least 12 flights between John Wayne Airport and San Francisco were canceled Saturday after a jetliner crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport earlier in the day, according to JWA's website. Seven departures from and five arrivals to JWA, mainly Southwest and United airlines flights, were canceled as of 8 p.m. Saturday, the JWA website said. Two people died and at 49 people were in serious condition after an Asiana Airlines flight carrying 307 passengers from Seoul, South Korea, crashed at 11:27 a.m. Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration could revisit Newport Beach's request that the agency consider developing an advanced departure procedure from John Wayne Airport that would dampen the roar of jet engines over homes neighboring the Upper Newport Bay, according to a letter the FAA sent the city. But first, FAA officials said, the world's busiest airport is in line for a test version of the upgrade. Starting this fall, Delta Air Lines pilots taking off from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will have the option of flying a Requiered Navigation Performance departure procedure, which would "take aircraft on a curving path over a golf course" west of the airport, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor wrote in an email.

John Wayne Airport passengers could soon say "Aloha" to reinstated service to Hawaii, Airport Director Alan Murphy told members of the Newport Beach business community at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday morning. He said he gets asked a lot about service to Hawaii, and airport operators hope to work with an appropriate carrier to provide flights to the islands. But first, airport officials are aiming for Washington, D.C. "It's our No. 1 current unserved market," Murphy said.

In addition to that famously steep takeoff, some passengers heading out of John Wayne Airport could someday sit through a zig-zag over the Upper Newport Bay, if the Federal Aviation Administration approves a departure procedure recommended by the Newport Beach City Council. At its meeting Tuesday night, the council voted unanimously to send a letter to the federal agency proposing the procedure, which was developed with the help of aviation consulting firm Naverus for $75,000.

Whip Whitaker wakes up with a beautiful woman after a night of hard partying. He has a flight to catch in two hours, so he downs more booze and cocaine to pull himself together before strutting onto the plane. Whitaker is the pilot. What follows in "Flight" is a white-knuckle takeoff during a storm and an even more terrifying equipment malfunction mid-flight. Capt. Whitaker is a hero for his skillful crash-landing with few fatalities, all the more miraculous considering his condition.